Citation

Schofer MD, Hrabal SA, Timmesfeld N, Fuchs-Winkelmann S, Patzer T. Scand. J. Med. Sci. Sports 2014; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

University Hospital for Orthopaedics and Orthopaedic Surgery, Marburg, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1600-0838.2010.01158.x

PMID

20636307

Abstract

Cable wakeboarding has enjoyed an increasing popularity worldwide over the past years. The aim was to analyze the data gained in a prospective Descriptive Epidemiologic Study during a 6-month summer season in order to propose preventive methods with the goal of reducing injury severity and frequency. The study included 122 participants with a mean age of 25 years (15-42; +/-5.88, 81% male) having regularly submitted a monthly, online questionnaire. Ninety-eight percent of the participants sustained 277 injuries over 8647 h of activity, 108 (39%; 12/1000 h) had to be treated medically. The most common form of injuries were mild injuries (61%; 19.5/1000 h), 15% were very severe (4.8/1000 h), 14% were severe (4.5/1000 h) and 10% were medium-severe (3.2/1000 h). More than 20% of injuries were to the knee and shoulder with >70% being distorsions and contusions. Severe injuries were mostly observed during rotational jumps. Injury prevention in cable wakeboarding has to address the training of jumps and tricks and the construction of obstacles and ramps. Cable wakeboarding is not more dangerous when comparing rates of injury of similar and related popular sports, even though the rate of mild injuries not requiring medical treatment is somewhat higher.

Language: en